CHON’s Set From SXSW Shows How Good This Band Really Is

warned you guys last week about how fucking good CHON are live. Now I’ve got proof. 60-some people huddled around the band in the mid-afternoon in a sweaty outdoor-basement at the Audiotree Showcase at Licha’s Cantina in Austin, sipping Lone Stars and smoking Kamel Reds, all getting their faces fucked off. It was an organic fuck-off too – no protection needed, just a guitar into a PolyTune into a Vox. Super refreshing, super fun tunes. No breakdowns or 0000’s or smelly metal boys in sight. And no yucky buzzing distortion!

ADVERTISEMENT

All this to say, there’s something different about CHON’s music that’s breaking music consumption barriers. They’re managing to break through to non-metal and non-prog audiences, partially because there isn’t an impenetrable layer of “tough guy metalness” about them. There’s an impenetrable layer of talent and practice that goes into the making of this music, for sure, but their image and sound aren’t off-putting the way that most hardcore/metal is. The music is actually fun to listen to, whether you’re geeked out, standing there calculating their arpeggios, or even sippin a Mai-Thai and getting down with your home girl.

So, courtesy of Audiotree, get down with CHON:

CHON’s new album Grow is out now on Sumerian Records. Support great music like this!

Written by

Max is managing editor of Gear Gods.